The 30-day Flight - Latest Comments in Day 4

Re: Day 4

iomy — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:03:42 -0000

You should have one big list of all the flight segments and cross them off as you go. Would be interesting to see it all at once. Also, your photos link isn't working very well.

Re: Day 4

nickhowe — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:33:28 -0000

As per some others, a Google map would be fun. Sorry I missed you guys when you came to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, would have bought you lunch or shown you the sites (if you had time)

Re: Day 4

Ron — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:13:55 -0000

Like many others, I have been following you since the American Airlines post. I like your site designt, but please take care of your self before taking care of us.

I originally started following you because of your web design and suggestions for the other web sites that are out there, I only with I had half the talent that you do.

As an owner of a Travel Agency, myself (and other agents) enjoy hearing about travel related experiences (such as this) that we can learn from and share with our friends and clients.

Keep up the great job and good luck with the rest of trip.

Re: Day 4

Scott Gamble — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:48:03 -0000

I'm here for the stories, too. Of course I would enjoy pictures and video as well. Your twitter posts remind me to check the site for updates.

I'd also be interested in hearing your assessment of airport amenities - wifi, showers, etc. I have been getting stuck in airports more often lately, so a recent survey would be helpful.

Re: Day 4

Richard (Englishman) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:45:02 -0000

Dustin. Don't even flinch at the "Terminal Man" article. That's the great thing about this country. Competition baby!

But seriously, maybe forgo the "perfect" design for just some content and pictures. :\ I know you're losing sleep but ..... well... I know you'll figure it out.

Peace man and good luck!

Re: Day 4

PIctures? — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:44:16 -0000

Dude, I've been tracking this since the start. But put up a friggen picture! If I wanted to vicariously experience literature I'd go pick up a novel. Seriously: (1) take picture, (2) post picture, (3) make readers happy, (4) make you happy, (5) world is happy.

Re: Day 4

Martin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:48:17 -0000

I'd also love to see photos and/or video from your journey. I absolutely adore your design work, but it would be nice to actually see what's going on.

Best of luck!

Re: Day 4

Michael Pascal — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:27:45 -0000

Perhaps come up with a standard question to ask every person you meet, "what's your favorite airline? Or airport? Or what are the 5 must-have personal items you always bring with you for a flight? etc."

You may get some fun answers.

Re: Day 4

Onur Aybar — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:08:00 -0000

Suggestions-> Take note of your mental state of mind and tie it into how that makes you interpret your conversations with others and your environment as a whole. For instance, if you are drained physically then you will most likely be very mentally fatigued as well. Write about how that effects your understanding of the information that you are taking in. The hedge fund manager mentioned below...since you were exhausted did it effect your opinion of his work, his conversation, appearance, social skills, etc.

Maybe discuss the experience of flying the airline day in and day out. Does it give you a better understanding of user experience in the service industry? How would you better this particular company's use of inter personal communication to make your time with them more pleasant. Compare your UX work with their marketing departments.

Get more into design. How do different aircraft effect your mental state of mind and comfort level in general and relate that to UX in the tangible goods industry. I can write for days about how the MD-88 makes me nauseous in flight compared to how calm I feel on a 737 and so on and so fourth. Even get into color choices on the aircraft and the placement of branding and give us your opinions on how that effected your experience. What would you have done differently, can you relate that to Web UX?

Either way I am sure that you will find some great things to write about and jazz it all up with awesome graphics.

I' m really excited for you guys and can't wait to see what you take away from this experience. Please do take photos!

Re: Day 4

Digital Seed — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:14:26 -0000

I'm here for the stories. Through your very trained eyes, the people you meet can be a great subject for a book or even a movie. Heck this should have been a doco! But I can see the problem with sleep.

Keep going... we're following

Digital Seed

Re: Day 4

Siim Esko — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:47:04 -0000

It's why I started reading it in the first place: Great plan to meet (possibly) great people! With interesting stories to tell. Perhaps you can record some thoughts on a voice recorder for later transcription? Like your iPhone? Would possibly ease the pain.

Best of luck in your journey!

Re: Day 4

Norris Mantooth ♫  — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:07:58 -0000

Post photos of interior of airports. Keeps things interesting.

Re: Day 4

jmd001 — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:17:04 -0000

Did you know that at least one other person is trying to be equally as insane as you WRT JetBlue:
http://www.wired.com/autopi...

Re: Day 4

Jay — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:04:59 -0000

Did you bite off a bit more then you can chew with this one?
I'm hoping the takeaway you get from this 30 day flight experiment is that outside influences are quite real and can suck the passion and joy out of a project. Your "create the filter" posting on your main site seemed to display the attitude that if you compromise your product/vision for any reason then you have failed.

And yet here you are only 4 days into this project and you're already considering how you can compromise and edit your original vision for this project. I will continue to read your blog long after this project ends, but I hope you can learn to roll with the punches a bit more and realize that it's utterly impossible to knock every project out of the park.

Re: Day 4

craig | travelvicec.om — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:54:25 -0000

Agreed -- looks painfully bad.

Re: Day 4

Edward Abrams — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:56:55 -0000

I wanted to build upon something Mikkel Paulson wrote. I think the most awesome part of your project is the plan to meet people, hear their stories and learn about people who are on airplanes. Statistically, you are likely to meet people who are on airplanes a lot. I think that's fascinating.

But I'm worried. On day 4, it sounds like both of you are having a really hard time with sleep related issues. I'm worried you won't be able to hear and tell these stories without going somewhat easier on yourself.

If you were forced to make a choice between adherence to the original plan on the one hand, and sacrificing a few cities in order to do a deeper, better, more profound job of telling stories on the other, let me be the first to cast my vote that you opt for the latter. It could even be that the balance is achievable where you are able to meet 90% of your initial flying goal and do 100% better a job staying awake to hear people's stories.

Like I said, my motive for mentioning this is merely worry. Perhaps by day 6, we'll find you in a groove, awake, alert and able to do it all, storytelling and hitting the insane number of flights you originally hoped for. If so, go kick some ass. But if not, I hope you will favor the more flavorful and rich goal of getting to know people even if it comes at the expense of the original tactical goal.

Best of luck whatever the future holds.

Re: Day 4

Name — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:35:38 -0000

video from your iPhone

Re: Day 4

mrclark411 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:33:09 -0000

Hi Dustin - great fun. Wish I could have taken advantage of the same program. I worked one summer for Jetblue and love the people in the company. Great times.

How about mapping/annotating the stories/people you meet?

Re: Day 4

Doug Vander Meulen — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:27:33 -0000

It would be cool if you did a design study of the different terminals and locations you visit. I come back to see what html/css tricks you are using to spice up each day...

Re: Day 4

Josh Powell — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:44:14 -0000

Would love to see a google map with a line drawn along the flight path you've already taken and another one along the upcoming days trips.

Re: Day 4

Mikkel Paulson — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:38:55 -0000

I agree with David. The most interesting part (and I'd say half of the point) of this project is the people you meet along the way. You're in the unique position to profile perhaps hundreds of travellers, many (if you'll excuse me saying so) with more interesting stories than yourself. Hearing about your bloodshot eyes and hunt for a shower has been entertaining so far, but it will get old after a few days. For you too, I suspect.

However, given your mental state, I will forgive you a certain drop in standards. This site is about the trip, not about design. It's the content itself that interests me, and if the design process is getting in the way, that's what should be nixed.

I agree with him again that the site does look pretty good at 1024x1280, although many fixed-width sites do work well with that resolution. Unfortunately, you're 1px too wide to display without a horizontal scrollbar in Safari at that resolution.

Photos are always a nice way to add interest to a design with very little work, but I have taken a number of airport photos and they always end up looking samey. I don't even bother anymore. Architecture aside, every airport is more or less like the other.

Re: Day 4

Ben — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:36:09 -0000

I'd love to see pictures from all the airports, people you meet etc. Interviews with flight attendants, airport people, passengers. Maybe even very short video clips via iphone or flip camera.

I think this project is awesome, had the same idea myself but not the time or money to do it. I think your site looks great, but I'd love to see content, to be able to follow along with your travels.

Re: Day 4

Felipe Coury — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:36:01 -0000

Pictures! :)

Re: Day 4

Stephen Parker — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:31:15 -0000

Hello. I'm here because you fascinate me. I think the most interesting part for me is watching you work out a new navigation/stand alone scheme for this site, figuring out how to document your trip. I wish you were devoting 30 days to this subject alone with lots of sleep, but will take what I can get :) Have found myself drifting off in thought the last couple of days -- wondering if you are putting together articles on laptop (mid flight), suffering from extreme sleep deprivation, running around like a chicken with head cut off -- perhaps all of the above.

I think you are very likely to become unbalanced somewhere along this trip. It will be interesting to see how you design for necessity when that starts to happen. Not trying to be negative, just trying to focus on the reality of the situation and gleam what a designer might in the process. Best of luck to you :)

Re: Day 4

Laura A Compton — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:27:36 -0000

Hello Dustin and Alaska,

What fun it is to hear about this adventure. I'm coming back as a regular visitor to your original website and/or twitter, being one of the more interesting and well spoken of those I follow. You mentioned earlier about obsession with numbers. I'm excited to see those numbers, whether they describe pairs or socks used, types of free/or not drinks consumed on the plane etc. Either way I'm psyched to see more of whatever you dish out. Good luck and happy coding!